According to the working principle and working condition of a new vacuum pump for vehicle，the MITSUBISHI Q series PLC was used as the control host, and the pneumatic system and hydraulic system were adopted, a new type of automatic test device for the performance of the automobile vacuum pump was designed. Through simulating engine driving the vacuum pump condition and the vacuum pump working environment, the device could be used to automatically detect whether the performance of the vacuum pump met the requirements.The result shows that the equipment runs well, the detection result is accurate, the automation level is high, and it has higher practicability.